BUSY BUSY - Work on the Berkley Avenue road bridge

FOR three months, drivers on the A33 Relief Road have looked at the scaffolding around the Berkeley Avenue road bridge above them and wondered if the improvements would be completed on time.

There were bollards, and, later, a contraflow system, which mysteriously changed sides a few weeks into the project.

But nobody seemed to be working on it.

However, yesterday it was revealed that the 17-week project on the bridge and the nearby canal bridge was on schedule and due to finish in the first week of July.

The men had not been absent without leave, they had been hidden from view by the plastic sheeting covering both sides of the bridges and the wooden

scaffold decks erected underneath.

Neville Cooke, site agent for civil engineers Interserve Projects Service Limited, said: "We've had to put the sheeting up because we have been grit-blasting the sides of the bridges.

"The grit removes the paint but we have to stop it from falling on to the road or into the canal, so we put the sheeting up.

"That's why drivers haven't been able to see the workers.

"But we have been here from 7am to 7pm every day, often seven days a week."

The £800,000 project, which started at the end of February, is now nearly finished, with the canal bridge completed, and half the road bridge

finished and freshly painted.

Work on the bridges, built in 1908, has involved replacing thousands of rivets and bolts, which had eroded over the years, and making new steel brackets, beams and plates. The waterproofing membrane on the bridge decks has also been repaired.

The work was scheduled after routine checks revealed the bridges had corroded due to rain and steam from trains passing underneath, when the relief road was a railway line.

The project has been submitted for a Thames Valley Institute of Civil Engineers Merit Award because of the way modern techniques have been used to restore the old structures.

Mr Cooke said: "The project has gone very well, although the speed of the traffic travelling underneath the bridge has been a problem for us in terms of keeping our workforce safe.

"We have tried to keep it down to 20mph under there but people don't always stick to it."

However, he was quick to compliment Reading drivers on their patience.

"We usually get a lot of abuse from people on jobs like this, with people winding down their windows to complain.

"But we have not had that here."

John Howarth, lead councillor for strategic planning and transport at Reading Borough Council, which contracted the work to Interserve, said: "Projects like this are difficult and

complex and cannot be completed without some disruption.

"There were many, many things which could have gone wrong with such a major project so we're delighted that everything has gone very well and, so far, the work is running ahead of schedule.